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Worse and worse for Blair

In one episode of BBC's celebrated Yes Minister series Sir Humphrey, the dyed-in-the-wool Whitehall civil servant, explains to a confused new Minister this fine distinction between government policy and practice: it was not government policy to "wink" at corruption — "only government practice." That is precisely what the British Government under Prime Minister Tony Blair appears to be doing: winking at corrupt practices while preaching honest governance. In a move that has seriously diminished Britain's moral authority to rail against `corrupt' third world governments, Mr. Blair personally intervened to stop a major corruption investigation with international ramifications. Last week, he called off a two-year-long inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office into allegations that BAE Systems created a multi-million pound "slush fund" through its offshore accounts to bribe Saudi officials to win a lucrative defence contract in the 1980s. Mr. Blair accepted "full responsibility" for the decision, citing "national security" as the justification. "Leave aside the effect on thousands of British jobs and billions worth of pounds for British industry," he explained, "...our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of counter-terrorism, in terms of the broader Middle East, and in terms of helping in respect of Israel and Palestine."

This is seen as Blair-ite shorthand for having to cave in to the Saudi Government's reported threat to cancel a six-billion-pound contract to buy 72 Typhoon Eurofighters from BAE if the investigation went ahead. According to media reports, Riyadh also threatened to stop sharing "vital" intelligence about al-Qaeda and to "kick out" British intelligence and military officials. On the assumption that these reports are true, the question is being asked: can a sovereign nation, especially one that has made giving aid to African countries conditional on their willingness to crack down on corruption, allow itself to be "blackmailed" like this? What kind of signal does it send to those countries? As The Guardian's economics editor Larry Elliott wrote, next time a British Minister lectures them on good governance and trade ethics all they need to do is to "whisper one word — BAE." For a combination of reasons headed by the Iraq fiasco, Mr. Blair's political career has been in free fall. A leader who came to power vowing to provide squeaky clean governance finds himself embroiled in scandals over cash-for-peerages and a flagrant cover-up of corruption. Poor Mr. Blair — just when people thought it could not get worse for him, it has actually got worse.

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